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Welcome to the Humanist Community Project! This initiative, from the Humanist Chaplaincy at Harvard, is an attempt to research and provide resources to Humanist, skeptic, atheist and nonreligious communities around the country so they can build, grow and improve their local efforts. This post introduces the Project, and gives advice for navigating the site.
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Sharon Moss, Alumni Director for the Secular Student Alliance, walks you through the process of organizing your own event on National Ask-An-Atheist Day, April 19, 2012. Continue reading
The Humanist Chaplaincy at Harvard is bringing Rabbi Miriam Jerris of the Society for Humanistic Judaism to our community for a three-day intensive Humanist Celebrant training course on weddings, funerals, baby-namings, and more! Rabbi Jerris is the Associate Professor of … Continue reading
One of the harder tasks for a Humanist Celebrant is to be the officiant at a funeral or memorial service. Although weddings and other celebratory occasions provoke their share of anxiety in me (I don’t want to ruin anybody’s special day), the thought of standing in front of grieving group of friends and family members and speaking about their loss always gave me a sinking feeling. Am I capable of giving some degree of comfort or closure to those mourning their loss? Continue reading
Ed Clint takes you through the conception, design and marketing process for the highly successful “Secular Samaritan” ad campaign run by the University of Illinois student atheist group, the Illini Secular Student Alliance (ISSA). Posters designed by Emelyn Baker. Continue reading
Humanists must come together to build communities of Reason, Compassion, and Hope for the Human Prospect, argues James Croft in this rousing talk for the Greater Boston Humanists. Continue reading
The Humanist Community Project’s James Croft appeared on Cape Reason, the podcast of the Cape Fear Humanist and Freethought community, where he was ably interviewed by Han Hills. In a wide-ranging discussion, James described the goals, purposes and hopes of the Humanist Community Project, as well as our plans for the future. Continue reading
How should religious and non-religious people relate to one another? Perhaps on this issue the New Testament and Martin Luther King, Jr. have something to contribute when they suggest we should love our enemies. Continue reading
The separation between church and state: perhaps no other issue unites the freethinking movement more readily. The newest of atheists, the most ardent Humanists, the freest freethinkers all support the idea that we should, as Christopher Hitchens put it – “build up that wall!” However, I believe that the language we use to frame this issue central to our movement could be much improved by a consideration of framing. Here I suggest how. Continue reading
Thinking is fundamentally metaphorical. We understand the world through various “frames”, conceptual metaphors which guide how we perceive things. How we understand the world affects what we choose to do. And therefore, by choosing the wayy we describe our goals carefully, we can activate frames which are likely to make us more persuasive. Find out how. Continue reading
If we want to win in the marketplace of hearts and minds, we have to speak to hearts as well as minds. The choice freethinkers face is not between emotional appeals and rational appeals, but between effective appeals which intelligently harness human emotions, and ineffective appeals which do not. We need to go for the gut. Continue reading
